Curanderismo: Mexican American Folk Healing

1. Curanderismo: Past and Present Viewpoints

One CURANDERISMO: PAST AND PRESENT VIEWPOINTS CURANDERISMO, iht Mexican American folk-healing system , is an important source of health resources for Mexican Americans living in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas and other places. The term curanderismo and the term curandero come from the Spanish verb curar, which means "to heal/7 Loosely, the word curandero could be applied to anyone who claims to have some skill in the healing arts, from a brain surgeon to a grandmother giving medicinal teas. However, for Mexican Americans the title curandero represents a healer who is part of a historically and culturally important system of health care. Therefore, in this book the word curandero is reserved for a person whose main profession and full-time work is as a healer, who sees more than five patients a day, and who uses all or some significant part of the theoretical system described here. The book itself is an ethnography of the healing theories and practices of curanderos practicing in Mexican American communities in the United States. Curanderos have long been a community health resource because the evolution and practice of curanderismo parallel the historical and cultural evolution of Mexican Americans as a population. The curandero is often a person chosen from the community, who shares the same experiences, the I 2 Curanderismo same language, and the same socioeconomic status as his or her patients. The curandero is highly accessible, without the intervening variables of excessive social and spatial distance that sometimes affect the delivery of health care in the United States. Usually, the only major distinctions between the curandero and the patient are the curandero's healing powers and medicinal knowledge. The curandero's office is in the community, normally in the healer's home. No appointments are necessary, referrals are not often required , no bureaucratic forms must be filled out, and no fees for services are charged (the patient gives a donation, using his conscience as his guide). The patient does not need to be covered by Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross, or the Kaiser plan to have access to the curandero. Another characteristic that makes the curandero an important community health resource is the way that the healers use culturally appropriate methods of dealing with the patients, methods that activate the natural support system already existing in the community, rather than attempting to develop new or artificial support systems. The religious and spiritual aspects of the healing process capitalize on the patients7 faith and belief systems. The use of herbs, fruits, eggs, and oils allows healing to occur through the use ofeveryday resources, products the patient can easily obtain. And by making themselves an integral part of the patient's existing social network, the curanderos can use the patient 's family and peer group to support or implement the designated therapy. The curanderos' practices and theories have evolved through centuries of services to patients in the community, often when the healer provided the only health care available . Within the past twenty years, at least in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, the socioeconomic position of many Mexican Americans has improved so that modern medical resources are increasingly available, widely utilized, and appreciated by both curanderos and patients, since modern medicine Past and Present Viewpoints 3 offers excellent care for a number of medical problems. However, at least in the valley, this use of modern medical facilities by both curanderos and their patients has not had the effect expected by some social scientists. Curanderismo has not disappeared. It continues to exist, thrive, and even evolve creative new forms of dealing with health and misfortune , side by side with modern medicine, and in (often silent ) partnership with it. In many respects the research supporting this book can be considered an urban ethnography, since it was conducted in the context of an urban-industrial system. The research area is the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, near the mouth of the Rio Grande River. This is the flood plain of the Rio Grande River, and despite its name is totally devoid of even mild folds of land, let alone hills or mountains. On the United States side of the border, where the majority of the research was conducted, the valley is composed of three counties: Hidalgo, Cameron, and Willacy. Starr County is sometimes included in the valley area, but so little research was conducted in that area that it has been omitted for the...